Thanks for the kudos, BPA! Now let me reward you (and all) with... three more installments!

Chapter 14: Iron Man Neelsen

Jack is upset over not being able to defeat Ryu in a race, and he meets with the "ironman" Silver Neelsen, still going strong at the age of 97. Neelsen tells him, "I know why you can't win those races!" and takes him on for special training.

Seventy years ago, Neelsen had a rival that he just couldn't beat, named Anthony. And on the day when they were to duel, Neelsen chickened out and didn't show up for the race. Now, 70 years later, Neelsen meets Anthony again. He had figured Anthony was already dead, but in fact Anthony had been in "cold sleep" and was just the same as years ago. Neelsen challenges him to a race to fulfill the promise made 70 years ago. Jack, learning from Neelsen about why he couldn't win, also joins the race.

The rivals begin their battle, and at the end, Ryu, Jack, Neelsen, and Anthony are neck-and-neck for the lead. Jack pulls ahead to win, Ryu finishes second, and Neelsen and Anthony tie for third. Ryu shouts congratulations at Jack, who embarrassedly thanks his rival, saying, "I won it because you were here!"

Chapter 15: Pico the Sniper

With police checks becoming strict, Zoda is unable to ship his stolen goods from Mute City. He calls on the hitman Pico to eliminate Galactic Police chief John Tanaka.

Tanaka, having no idea that he's been targeted, is on his way to a dinner show starring his favorite singer, Kate Alen. This is where Pico attacks him.

John Tanaka manages to escape from Pico, but Jody Summer finds out that his life was in danger, and places him in a Galactic Police building for his safety. John, wanting to see Kate's show, distracts the guards and escapes.

On the large passenger ship where the show is taking place, however, Zoda is attempting to steal valuable goods from the ship's holds. John is unaware of this and is simply looking forward to the show, but Zoda thinks that John's presence on the ship means that his plan has been discovered.

Zoda takes John to the hold in order to dispose of him. Here he is spotted by Ryu andhis friends, who are on board looking for Tanaka.

Ryu and comrades rescue Tanaka and recover the stolen goods. "What were you doing on this ship, Chief?" asks Ryu, and Tanaka can only mumble an excuse.

Chapter 16: Leave It To Super Arrow!

Miss Killer approaches Super Arrow, self-styled defender of justice, in order to make use of him. The naive Super Arrow is completely taken in by her lies, pledging to help her win her race. Ryu sees this and warns Super Arrow that Miss Killer is in fact an agent of Dark Million, but Super Arrow refuses to listen.

Training Miss Killer for victory, Super Arrow teaches her the "sandwich burst" technique. He also gets Ryu to help her.

Race day: Miss Killer uses the "sandwich burst" technique to put her Moon Shadow in first place. But then Mrs. Arros, Super Arrow's wife, uses the same move to put Ryu's car in Miss Killer's position. They prevent Miss Killer from winning.

Later, Super Arrow looks into the sunset and laughs, still having no idea that he's been duped!

RS, that thesis was a monster. I had to have some serious self-discipline -- every time I started writing e-mail to friends, or playing games on my PC, or anything else computer-related, I forced myself to click on the "Thesis.doc" icon instead and put in some more labor. (And now that it's been submitted, I see dozens of things that I want to change!)

Anyway I'm going to try to get back to my pace of at least one chapter per day. Here's the next one:

Ryu is depressed about never being able to defeat Falcon, and he decides to remove the control device on his machine and drive using only his own ability.

Driving an F-Zero machine without its control device is extremely dangerous. The others refused, but Jack agreed to be Ryu's training partner. Ryu thanks him for this friendly gesture. Byt when Ryu crashes in training, Jack suffers an injury in trying to protect him.

When the day of the race comes, Ryu is depressed, feeling that Jack's injury is his fault. But Jack, out of the hospital, comes up to Ryu and encourages him.

His confidence regained, Ryu challenges Falcon. But Black Shadow's minions are in his way. Ryu decides to use his spin booster to get out of the jam. "BOOST FIRE!!" -- he succeeds! And Ryu then goes on to defeat Falcon.

Falcon says only, "Don't forget how to time that boost," before disappearing. It seems he had been testing Ryu.

Octoman, Zoda's underling, was nervous. Some octopi had come to support him as representatives of their home planet, Takora.

Octoman had been taking advantage of the lack of F-Zero news on Takora by telling his friends that he had been winning every race. These lies made him a hero on his home planet. He was determined to keep his duplicity a secret.

Ryu and the team had received orders to protect this Takora contingent. In order to avoid poiltical trouble between the Galactic Federation and Takora, they overlooked Octoman's lies. With the Takora delegation on hand to cheer for Octoman, an F-Zero race began. Today, Octoman had to win!

But he fell behind the lead pack and was discouraged. Then the lead group, including Ryu and Zoda, fought each other with spin attacks. Octoman's machine, trailing this pack, was still undamaged. He was able to surge ahead and win the race.

The Takora representatives went home satisfied, and Octoman breathed a sigh of relief.

Ryu and his team were also relieved when the prize money was given to Takora as a gift. Better than it falling into the hands of Dark Million!

But Zoda, failing to win and then finishing out of the money, found Black Shadow's eye pointing his way.

(There's an established term for reactormite; someone tell me what it is)

A spacefaring vessel is attacked by Lisa Brilliant's band of pirates, and its cargo is stolen. Coincidentally, included in this cargo is a substance called "reactormite", which allows energy to be utilized to the fullest.

In order to find Lisa's whereabouts, Ryu visits her husband Samurai Goroh.

Lisa was in turn being chased by Zoda, who wanted the reactormite. Lisa manages to get the reactormite to Goroh, but Zoda captures her. To rescue her, Ryu and Goroh take the reactormite to Zoda's base. They face Zoda but Lisa is held hostage. They are unable to resist as Zoda tries to kill them..

Ryu wants to hand the reactormite over to Zoda, but Goroh stops him. "What's with that pathetic face!? No matter what the situation, even if you're going to die, never look like you've given up!"

But Zoda has already fired at Ryu! Then a piece of the reactormite is emitted. The energy sends Ryu and Zoda flying. Zoda is mesmerized by the power. He ignores Ryu, takes the reactormite, and disappears.

"With this, I can defeat Black Shadow!" Zoda embraces the reactormite and laughs.